Rick's Rock vs. Rev. Wright

That's not to say the Post was unfamiliar with the scent of this scandal at Obama's own Trinity United Church of Christ. The news folks could have read Post columnist Richard Cohen denouncing Wright in a column on Jan. 15, 2008, over how Trinity's church magazine fulsomely praised anti-Semitic Louis Farrakhan. But the Post "news" hunters weren't turning over that rock.

Five days after the Wright-sermon story finally broke, Barack Obama gave his "historic race speech" in Philadelphia. This was the front-page story The Washington Post offered on that morning: "Congregation Defends Obama's Ex-Pastor: Criticism Seen As Attempt to Silence Black Church."

Eli Saslow's first sympathetic sentence couldn't be more of a clash with Stephanie McCrummen's rock-scrubbing acid poured on Perry: "The Rev. Jeremiah Wright spent 36 years teaching this congregation how to recognize injustice, and his parishioners sense it all around them now." This was also in the first paragraph: "They read a handout that described Wright's newfound infamy as a 'modern-day lynching.'"

You know who ought to recognize injustice? Anyone who reads The Washington Post expecting Republicans and Democrats to be treated with equal fairness and accuracy.

In June, Saslow returned to Wright's church for another hanky-filling story headlined "At Obama's Former Church, Hurt Lingers: Black Congregations Feel Marginalized by Uproar." Perhaps the most ridiculous story came on July 6, when Jonathan Weisman wrote a promotional front-pager headlined "Obama Addresses His Faith: Senator Describes Spiritual Journey." Obama was allowed to declare to audiences how he "let Jesus Christ into his life" on the south side of Chicago. Wright and Trinity United Church of Christ were completely airbrushed out.

The Post should have done more investigating and less sympathizing with Wright. But the Post should have also done more investigating before they published this ridiculous fraction of a story about some painted rock on a Texas ranch. Any editor worth his salt would have laughed the reporter out of his office and back to do more record-scrubbing ... and less paint sniffing.